The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and in particular to a portable wireless communications adapter.
Modern aircraft typically transmit data between sensors and systems positioned about the aircraft using wired aircraft data buses, such as serial or other wired data buses. Using the data buses, data is routed between producing systems and consuming systems for operational control of the aircraft. Certain data is routed to flight display systems, such as primary flight displays (PFDs) or an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) located in the aircraft cockpit.
Recently, portable electronic devices such as tablet computers have been used in the cockpit as ancillary interfaces which display certain aircraft operational data and receive user input for, e.g., flight planning, flight optimization, takeoff and landing checklists, prognostic and diagnostic health operations, or other aircraft flight planning and control operations. The portable electronic devices provide supplemental interfaces for display and user input without requiring additional display and/or input devices mounted in the cockpit, thereby reducing space, weight, and cost associated with the additional interfaces.
The portable electronic devices often communicate wirelessly with one or more aircraft systems and devices to receive information for display and to transmit user input information for operational control of the aircraft. Such wireless communications, though often encrypted or otherwise protected, are typically transmitted over frequency ranges that are accessible to commercially available electronic devices, such as the 900 megahertz (MHz), 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 5 GHz, and/or 60 GHz frequency bands. Indeed, the portable electronic devices used as ancillary pilot and/or crew interfaces are also often commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) devices which communicate wirelessly in one or more of the standard frequency bands.
More recently, to decrease the space, weight, and cost associated with wired aircraft data buses, wireless communication between aircraft systems and/or sensors has been considered. To increase available bandwidth and to enhance security, the Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications (WAIC) standard has been proposed. The WAIC standard specifies wireless communications in a frequency range between 4.2 gigahertz (GHz) and 4.4 GHz. In addition, the WAIC standard specifies that WAIC communications are limited to wireless communications only between aircraft systems and/or components.